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Catch 22

 

            In the novel, various aspects regarding attitude toward society, war times, and the power of authority dominate the plot. Catch-22 is a novel that discusses the sheer insanity that accompanies the participants of war. Countless times throughout the story, the main character, Yossarian, is placed in faced with compromising situations which cause him to question himself and his motives, he must come to grips with battle and the inhumanity of his miltarymilitary generals. The major conflict enlaced between the countless battles of man vs man, is that of man vs the system. The system is in fact a system of dictatorship and oppression of the soldiers who are promised the freedom to go home, but instead are forced to stay and fly more and more missions.There are Mmany aspects that function as parts of the "system", all of which did attribute to Yossarian's final breakdown.
             The author, Joseph Heller, creates a setting in which the characters represent either the exploiter or exploited. "Each soldier has no individuality-Heller points out hta tpeople that people today too often follow a norm or accept rules that categorize them The struggle of characters to maintain their individuality is a thread which holds the novel together. "To the military system, soldiers are not people, they are just uniforms and numbers. Oddly "enemies" are found fighting alongside each other." (Caught) The catch itself is representative of what oppresses the soldiers who are fighting to escape the war. The catch is used as justification for every violation of human rights. The catch means whatever "they" (the system) want it to mean. Characters are persuaded to believe in the system rather than opposite oppose it. .
             As Yossarian discovers, "Catch-22 did not exist.but it made no difference. What did matter, is that everyone thought it did, and that was much worse for there was no object or text to criticize, attack, amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon or burn up.


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